Clearwater, FL -- Hundreds of people have signed up for the Python Challenge 2013, and dozens of them are from the Tampa Bay area.

But even professional trappers say there's little chance of finding the snakes.

You could be standing a couple of feet away from one and not even know it. And the Everglades, they warn, can be some pretty tough terrain.

At 70 years old, Tom Kelly of Clearwater is not exactly your typical snake charmer, but that's not stopping him and his 18-year-old granddaughter from heading into the Everglades this month to participate.

"I'm looking for my inner Indiana Jones," jokes Kelly, "These pythons have no natural enemies and there they go through the Everglades, eating anything that moves!"

The contest, which starts this weekend and goes through mid-February, is being run by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It's another attempt to slow the python's population boom, which by some estimates is now about 150,000.